E-mail Blast to League - 1/27/18

It’s the second to last Friday Night Lights of the season tonight at Highlands North.
The AAA game at 5 p.m. is the Mud Hens at the Marauders.
And the Majors feature matchup at 7 p.m. is the Yankees at the Rays.

Before we get to the game preview, we have a bunch of notes to pass along.

District/Super Bowl Agreement Forms have been handed out to Managers to pass to their teams.
The Agreement Form is also on the web site, as well as the dates of the District/Super Bowl tournaments, and the District/Super Bowl voting process.
If your child is interested in putting themselves in the voting pool for Districts/Super Bowl, the Agreement Form will need to be filled out this weekend and handed to your Manager.
Super Bowl and Districts can be confusing to those new to the process, so below is a brief summary.
If you have further questions please e-mail Ted Mathias, tmathias@axway.com

Districts – there are 3 District teams for 10, 11, and 12 year olds. This is age specific and requires a significant commitment as the tournament runs several weeks and there are many practices. The Little League World Series that we see every year in August is the District 12 year old championship.
Super Bowl – there are 2 Super Bowl teams, the Majors Super Bowl (for Majors kids only, any kid in Majors can play) and Minors Super Bowl (for AAA kids only, any AAA kid can play). This tournament is just a weekend tournament and a much lesser commitment.

The playoff brackets have been added to the web site for AAA. Majors and AA are forthcoming.
As soon as your team is locked into a seed, you can determine your schedule for the entire playoffs.

Majors stats and standings for all leagues have been updated.

Mike Zirelli will be hosting a pitching clinic this Monday April 30th from 5:45 p.m. – 6:45 p.m. at Arguello.
Zirelli was a pitcher in the San Francisco Giants organization and a pitching coach at Santa Clara, and this free pitching clinic is always a popular destination for kids to learn proper pitching skills and mechanics.
If you are interested, please sign up via the Evite link below.http://evite.me/dZVvC8ghM9

We have given props to home run hitters and pitchers before, but never for a defensive play.
Well I was fortunate enough to witness the greatest defensive Little League play I have ever seen last Sunday.
Jaquari Hughes of the Giants hit a towering moonshot to right center field.
A home run would have put him in sole possession of the Majors lead with 4, and it seemed certain the ball would leave the yard.
Only the dulled down new bats and the wind blowing in at Stadium could stop this ball from its destiny.

As I watched the majestic flight of this ball into the sky and then it’s descent back down, a blur appeared in my field of vision.
That blur was Diamondbacks center fielder Drew Taft who seemingly came out of nowhere, in a full sprint, extending his glove hand above the fence, diving straight INTO the fencepost, and crashing and tumbling to the ground with the ball in his glove.
It was the best play I have ever seen in Little League, the only play where the opposing fans gave a standing ovation to the kid.
And since nobody had a camera to record the event, I wanted to record it here.
Oh, and Taft is a 10 year old, and the second youngest kid in Majors!
This was the very best Little League had to offer, from the play itself to the fans reaction, and it’s why we love this game.

The Yankees (7-5) visit the Rays (4-8) in the Majors FNL game of the week.
Manager Andy Castricone has his Yankees in 5th place in Majors, one spot from that coveted first round bye which goes to the Top 4 teams.
After starting out on fire and then scuffling for a bit, the Yankees got back on track with a win earlier this week.

Now they face the red hot Rays under Manager Tom Apela.
The Rays started off slow but have won their last two games by a combined score of 31-7.
This Rays offense is explosive as they have scored in double digits their last 5 games, and are tied for first averaging 7.92 runs per game.
But as good as this offense has been, the pitching staff has been shaky, as the Rays are 3rd to last with a 7.33 ERA.

Can the Yankees get that 4th playoff spot?
Who will they start tonight?
Can they cool off the red hot Rays offense?